[roadbikepilgrim]

Hi everyone,

I have had my road bike for 18 months. After a few months of purchase I bought a Decathlon chain measurement tool, used it regularly and was pretty good about cleaning and oiling the chain.

I am 186cm tall and weigh 70 kilos and ride perhaps 40-50 miles a week. I was quite surprised that my chain wear tool was telling me after about 10 months that I needed a new chain. I procrastinated for maybe a month, and then got my act together on Boxing Day last year. I could have replaced a little earlier, but I do not think I trashed the cassette.

So, the new chain (KMC 8-speed, £8 from Decathlon) has been on the bike for just over seven months now. My chain wear tool is showing that there is still room for the tool to drop i.e. it is not lying flat on the chain. Doing a 12-inch steel rule test today, however, suggests that I should think about replacing the chain, because the chain has lengthened by the width of a pin, which is 1/8 of an inch, Leonard Zinn in his Road Bike Maintenance book says that when the lengthening is 1/8 of an inch or more, the chain needs replacing.

So Decathlon’s tool says I have a little more life in the chain, but a ruler test says I should replace it now. I guess I must have done in 7 months about 1250  miles on the chain.

Does this mileage seem a little low? Zinn says that a heavy rider might only get 1000-1500 miles from a chain, but a light rider who doesn’t clean the chain could get 2-3000 miles or 5000 miles if he looks after the chain.

I look after the chain (oil regularly), and do not stand up on the peddles. I do a lot of gear changes according to terrain, traffic and when I am coming to a stop (easier to burn off from the lights in a higher gear).

At 70 kg am I a “heavy rider”, or should I be buying more expensive chains? Or should I see an £8 chain as a 6-7 month consumable and put a new chain on well within the wear period to protect the cassette?

Cheers

roadbikepilgrim

Topic

[TheBillder]

I added my weight to my
I added my weight to my comment because I’m a total sheep and it had already been mentioned by the OP. But I do think that torque is relevant to the wear rate, and as a medium to large person* I’ll need to put more force through the chain for longer up the climbs. Somewhere along the line there is surely a compromise between torque and cadence that is minimal for wear but no idea at what point. Gut feeling is that cadence will be a lot higher than anyone actually pedals.

* I do not for a moment mean to imply that I communicate with the spirit world for a single heavy individual. Just in case anyone misread that.

[Dangerous Dan]

I am sorry if I left the

I am sorry if I left the impression that that was a Hope chain.  It was made by a company called Tipsum.  The Hope stuff I have on MTB and my tandem is high quality.  The Hope bag was handy to show the broken chain. 

[Welsh boy]

Dangerous Dan wrote:

I bought a “Tipsum” chain off eBay and all I can say is that my experience was bad.  This is the first time in 40+ years of chain drive vehicles that I have had a chain break at a rivet. 

The chain was very light and had a Diamond Like Carbon coating so I thought I would give it a try. With 12 days (maybe 200 miles) one of the links popped when I accelerated from a stop light.

The vendor did give me a full refund without any questions so no problems with them, but that chain was defective in design or manufacture.

Wow, that is not good, I always thought that Hope made good quality products (I have been very impressed with their bottom brackets anyway).

[Dangerous Dan]

I bought a “Tipsum” chain off

I bought a “Tipsum” chain off eBay and all I can say is that my experience was bad.  This is the first time in 40+ years of chain drive vehicles that I have had a chain break at a rivet. 

The chain was very light and had a Diamond Like Carbon coating so I thought I would give it a try. With 12 days (maybe 200 miles) one of the links popped when I accelerated from a stop light.

The vendor did give me a full refund without any questions so no problems with them, but that chain was defective in design or manufacture.

[Drinfinity]

Welsh boy wrote:

Griff500 wrote:

Welsh boy wrote:

Why are you guys quoting your body weight when talking about chains?  It is the power you generate which is important

 the same power level

So you are telling me that if I climb a hill slowly I will do more damage to a chain than someone like Bernal or G climbing that same hill very quickly.  Really?  Are you sure?

No, he was not telling you that. Hence ‘at the same power level’. 

You and Egan set off up Holme Moss, both watching your power meters and sticking to 200W. Assuming Egan is lighter than you, he will get to the top whilst you are still on the climb. So you carry on for another 5 minutes grinding away at the chain.

You ride down and have another race. This time, you stick right beside Egan all the way to the top (he probably needs to take it easy after all those beers with G). Your average power will be greater than his. Again, mashing your chain more.

Back down for one more effort. This time, I put a strain gauge on the driven length of the chains to measure their tension. I find yours is under greater tension, as it has to winch your greater weight up the hill. So more pressure between all those pins and rollers and teeth, grinding your drivetrain to swarf.

Finally you decide to take him on the sprint through Holmfirth. You both stamp on the pedals to accelerate your masses forwards. You are bending your cranks to get the force from your legs via the chain to the back wheel. Your greater mass requires you to bend those cranks and stretch that chain even more than Egan to get enough force to provide the same acceleration. Your chain goes ping as you cross the line together. Fortunately it’s outside The Wrinkled Stocking Tearoom, so you can pop in for a well deserved brew.

 

[Griff500]

Welsh boy wrote:

Welsh boy wrote:

Griff500 wrote:

Welsh boy wrote:

Why are you guys quoting your body weight when talking about chains?  It is the power you generate which is important

I note you don’t understand the relationship between power, energy, and time. ie in climbing a hill, a 100kg rider gains 25% more potential energy than an 80kg rider, and therefore needs to put the same power level as the lighter rider through the chain for 25% longer to reach the top, or 25% more power for the same time, hence more chain wear. Same applies to acceleration – at 20mph the heavier rider has gained a greater kinetic energy, and therefore needs to put more power / same power for longer, to reach that speed. Greater weight, greater chain wear, every time. 

So you are telling me that if I climb a hill slowly I will do more damage to a chain than someone like Bernal or G climbing that same hill very quickly.  Really?  Are you sure?

No, I never mentioned G or Bernal. I seriously doubt whether you could apply the same 400w as them however. What I said was clear. A heavy rider climbing at the same power as a lighter rider will put the same power through the chain for longer to get to the top, and therefore wears the chain more. I take it you didn’t do physics at O level.

[Welsh boy]

Griff500 wrote:

Welsh boy wrote:

Why are you guys quoting your body weight when talking about chains?  It is the power you generate which is important

I note you don’t understand the relationship between power, energy, and time. ie in climbing a hill, a 100kg rider gains 25% more potential energy than an 80kg rider, and therefore needs to put the same power level as the lighter rider through the chain for 25% longer to reach the top, or 25% more power for the same time, hence more chain wear. Same applies to acceleration – at 20mph the heavier rider has gained a greater kinetic energy, and therefore needs to put more power / same power for longer, to reach that speed. Greater weight, greater chain wear, every time. 

So you are telling me that if I climb a hill slowly I will do more damage to a chain than someone like Bernal or G climbing that same hill very quickly.  Really?  Are you sure?

[roadbikepilgrim]

Everyone,

Everyone,

Thanks very much for all your input. I do change gear a lot, but I am very religious about not cross chaining. Its a triple crank and 8-speed chain.

I think that I shall just not think about miles done and whether I’m getting enough bang for my buck – £7 from Decathlon for an 8-Speed KMC chain is not much to pay, so two chains per year is fine.

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/kmc-z8-5-8-speed-bike-chain-id_699035.html

I’ll ride for another six weeks or so until the tool has nearly dropped (narf narf) and then replace the chain :).

Cheers

roadbikepilgrim

[roadbikepilgrim]

Everyone,

Everyone,

Thanks very much for all your input. I do change gear a lot, but I am very religious about not cross chaining. Its a triple crank and 8-speed chain.

I think that I shall just not think about miles done and whether I’m getting enough bang for my buck – £7 from Decathlon for an 8-Speed KMC chain is not much to pay, so two chains per year is fine.

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/kmc-z8-5-8-speed-bike-chain-id_699035.html

I’ll ride for another six weeks or so until the tool has nearly dropped (narf narf) and then replace the chain :).

Cheers

roadbikepilgrim

[roadbikepilgrim]

Everyone,

Everyone,

Thanks very much for all your input. I do change gear a lot, but I am very religious about not cross chaining. Its a triple crank and 8-speed chain.

I think that I shall just not think about miles done and whether I’m getting enough bang for my buck – £7 from Decathlon for an 8-Speed KMC chain is not much to pay, so two chains per year is fine.

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/kmc-z8-5-8-speed-bike-chain-id_699035.html

I’ll ride for another six weeks or so until the tool has nearly dropped (narf narf) and then replace the chain :).

Cheers

roadbikepilgrim

[ibr17xvii]

Organon wrote:

If 70kg is heavy, lord help the rest of us, (I’m 90kg.)  Can anyone tell me were I can find these KMC chains for just £8.00? (11 speed) I surprised myself to find I have done 3500km on current one and it is only about 25% on the Park Tool, think I will need a new one for the winter. I’ve waited too long in the past and the deadly chonk-chonk of slippage is an awful feeling.

OP has an 8 speed chain.

[ibr17xvii]

I change my chain as soon as

I change my chain as soon as it hits 0.5 on the chain checker.

I clean it probably once a week depending on mileage & contrary to KMC advice about solvents I’ve always used either Morgan Blue or Muc Off degreaser & can usually get 3000-4000 miles of summer riding from it so as far as I can see doesn’t do it any harm.

Can’t see how you can clean your chain effectively without using some sort of solvent anyway.

[Griff500]

Welsh boy wrote:

Why are you guys quoting your body weight when talking about chains?  It is the power you generate which is important

I note you don’t understand the relationship between power, energy, and time. ie in climbing a hill, a 100kg rider gains 25% more potential energy than an 80kg rider, and therefore needs to put the same power level as the lighter rider through the chain for 25% longer to reach the top, or 25% more power for the same time, hence more chain wear. Same applies to acceleration – at 20mph the heavier rider has gained a greater kinetic energy, and therefore needs to put more power / same power for longer, to reach that speed. Greater weight, greater chain wear, every time. 

[hawkinspeter]

Welsh boy wrote:

Why are you guys quoting your body weight when talking about chains?  It is the power you generate which is important, not your lardyness.  I bet that little Columbian chap who won the tour weighs about the same as one of my bingo wings and chews up chains a whole lot faster than I do.  He probably generates the same power output from his left eyelid as I do from both of my legs combined so forget your weight, BMI is not an indicator of power and so chain wear rate.

It is also a stupid idea that 3 chains being rotated will reduce wear rate of your transmission, it wont.  Assuming you change your chain every 1000 miles, by the time you put your third chain back on for it’s second outing your cassette will have done 5000 miles so you are trying to match one component with 1000 miles on it with another with 5000 on it.  It’s a bit silly to expect that combination to run smoothly isn’t it.

In answer to the OP, I wouldn’t go for an expensive chain, buy a KMC or SRAM for a couple of pounds, ride it for a winter, bin it and put a new one on for the summer.  Next year change our cassette and chain at the same time.

I thought this was some kind of weight-watchers thread.

[AfterPeak]

As others have said it is

As others have said it is more about the time of the year that effects how long a chain lasts. Changing my chain in spring I might get 2500-3000 miles out of it. Chain on in the winter I probably get 1500 no matter how much you try and keep it clean/oiled.

 

[Author]

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